Raptors In January

The January honeymoon for Raptors fans is over. We welcomed February with a loss to the Indiana Pacers and pulled out a game that was close for 3 quarters against the lowly Nets, with the half time show featuring Vanilla Ice of all people (maybe reason enough to go see the 4-44 nets)

Going 10-5 in the month with a 3 game and 5 game winning streak in January we had a bunch of Raptors fans all over the place drinking the Kool-aid. Why? Well they beat a bunch of teams that are supposed to be good.

Let’s take a look at the losses of the month, 2 losses to the Celtics who were missing Garnett for both and Rondo for the first. Another loss which should have been a win after blowing such a big lead was against the Pacers. A loss to Cleveland is expected, while losing the first of a back to back against the Bucks is ok. Well it’s only ok if your team is going to flirt with .500 ball all season long. Now wins over the Knicks, Heat, Pacers, Bucks, 76ers should happen. Even if they are grinders, a win is a win.

Well now you are probably thinking...what about beating The Mavericks, Lakers, Magic and Spurs? Well sorry to rain on your parades, but all these teams did not really show up to these games. San Antonio didn’t play very well and even though 10 games over .500 has been fairly inconsistent. Dallas went 8-9 in January playing some poor basketball. Orlando is slumping a bit too (I think they are missing Hedo) and finally what some people called the biggest win of the season so far against the Lakers. The Lakers don’t show up for some of their games mentally, even coach Phil Jackson said this has worried him www.espn.com. I noticed this last year with the Lakers as well, they don’t seem to show up for all their games but find a spot in the game where they will dominate and turn it on in time for the playoffs.

All in all, the team won the games they should have won and came out with a few surprise wins but I don’t see the reason for everyone to get so excited. We will see how they do in the next 5 games where they should go at least 3-2, with 4-1 looking really realistic. That's the Raptors in January.

On a final note Vanilla Ice?

Seriously?